Learn-a-stitch Needlepoint Owl – Brick by Brick

Rectangular and square stitches can be so much fun. They are such easy stitches to use for great patterns. One of the richest sources of patterns is brick walls, walkways and patios. By combining Cashmere Stitches, Mosaics, and Scotch Stitches, you can create so many interesting designs.

This month’s owl highlights four different brickwork patterns in textured stitches, Tent Stitches, and Blackwork.

The color scheme is inspired by the lovely color of Dinky Dyes, Aussie Pride, a red, white & blue scheme. Normally I’m not fond of this type of overdye because it doesn’t play well with others. Often the blues are too harsh and the white makes the value contrast too great. Aussie Pride has muted both the red & the blue to make them rich but light colors. With the narrower range of colors, solid threads in blue-violet, and red-orange look great. The white eyes highlight the white in the overdye.

In this owl I used:

Alyce Schroth Silk 17 Rose Pink (no longer made)

Dinky Dyes stranded silk 86 Aussie Pride

Pebbly Perle P08

12-strand Treasure Braid TR297

8-strand Treasure Braid TR88

Platinum Nature’s Palette 18-mesh canvas

Trace the outline of the owl onto your canvas. Remember that the owls and the tip of the top triangle are represented by dots and transfer them as well. From the middle dot, draw two diagonal lines to make the top triangle.

Head

Stitch the triangle in the top middle in Tiny English Bond, below. This brick style alternates placing the bricks with the long and short sides facing out. THe long bricks are centered over the smaller bricks. It’s made in Tent and Needlepoint Cross Stitch (Cross Stitch made over one intersection). This is such a pretty pattern, but it’s probably irritating to use in real bricks, because the back side of the wall would be extremely bumpy.

Tiny English Bond Tent Stitch pattern

Stitch the remainder of the head in Lattice Brick Blackwork, below. Instead of Cashmere Stitches, lines of Blackwork create two sizes of squares and one size of rectangle. This pattern could easily be done in stitches by using Scotch for the larger squares, Mosaic for the smaller squares, and Cashmere for the rectangles.

Lattice brickwork Blackwork pattern

Add the eyes, I used white brads.

Left Side

Stitch the left side in Zig-zag Cashmere, below. This pattern is typical of one that would be used for paths or patios, not one where the wall had to support weight.

Zig-zag Cashmere

Right Side

Stitch the right side in Horizontal Offset Cashmere, below. This pattern looks like a plain old brick wall. The actual name for this pattern in brick is Flemish Bond. In each row, the bricks are off set so that the join in one row is above the middle of the bricks in the row below.

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